SALISBURY, Md. - The gridiron felt more like a waffle iron Wednesday afternoon at James M. Bennett High School in Salisbury.
As members of the football team exercised and practiced plays, coaches were watching more than just the athletes' performance, they were watching the wet bulb globe temperature.
"This helps guide us so we're not doing anything too dangerous, but also getting the kids out and moving and getting used to it," said Kelly Rose, athletic trainer at Bennett.
The efficiency of the human body's systems to keep a safe body temperature can be affected by several weather conditions. Traditionally, meteorologists have used the heat index, which accounts for air temperature and humidity; higher relatively humidity means the body can't cool itself as easily.
But the wet bulb globe temperatures takes more factors into account. In addition to humidity and temperature, in also includes sun angle (which changes based on latitude and time of year), wind speed, and cloud cover, all of which also affect the body's temperature.
More and more coaches across the country, including at Bennett, are using this new metric to keep their athletes safe during practice in hot weather.
"Everybody's really good about it," Rose said. "Our coaches are super supportive; they understand that it's what we have to do, and to be honest it takes one more decision off their plate, so we make that."
In fact, on Wednesday, the wet bulb globe temperature reached "code orange", which triggered certain protocols during afternoon sports practice.
"I took all their pads away, they're doing helmets only today, no conditioning," Rose said. "And then soccer is doing classroom for one hour and then one hour outside doing a walkthrough."
Rose said the results have been positive since using the new metric.
"With athletic trainers here, we have somebody that's here if there is something that starts, we like to catch it early, that way we don't get to the emergency situation," Rose said.
